The Year in Snapshot

2020/2021

Snapshot 2020/21

Figures based on 10 months of operation as a result of 2 month school closure due to COVID impact in 2020.

"Outward Bound has left me with a desire and drive to want to do more with my life personally and professionally. The course has given me a new perspective on life and a drive to be active and take on new opportunities."_{- OB Student 2021}

On-Course Results

6-9 Month Post-Course Survey

Taking everything into account, how much of an impact would you say Outward Bound has had on your life in the six months since you left?

Evaluation Review
_{^{New On-Course Measures}}

During 2019/20 we worked alongside James Neill (Canberra University) and Dave Key (Eco-Psychologist) to review our evaluation processes and developed three new measures in order to better understand our impact and whether we are achieving our objectives.

In April 2021 we started measuring 'resilience', 'connection to nature' and 'sustainability'. We also redesigned our vision-focused questions and how we measure the level of challenge students experience on courses.

We have introduced a bespoke evaluation questionnaire for our Leaps and Bounds and Professional courses to better understand their impact and how we can continue to develop the programme to best meet the needs of these groups.

We coordinated with Outward Bound International on the development of a global evaluation measure and have aligned some of our measurements with their questionnaire.

Leaving a better person and motivated to give back

We added two new statements to help us better understand whether we are achieving our vision. We asked students their level of agreement regarding:

“I am leaving a better person.”
So far 89% of our students agree they are leaving the course a better person.

“I am motivated to give back to my community.”
So far 78% of our students are leaving the course feeling motivated to give back to their community.

New method of asking about challenge

As a result of our evaluation review we discovered that asking students to rate the level of challenge on a scale 1-10 was not giving us an accurate picture of whether we were providing the right amount of challenge for our students.

Some students commented that they scored 7 out of 10 because the course was too challenging for them, while others that scored 7 out of 10 explained their reasoning as the course was too easy for them.

So in true Outward Bound form, we looked for a solution and changed how we asked the question. We now ask using a 5-point scale: 'Far too hard' to 'Far too easy', with 'Just right' in the middle.

75% of students agreed on the amount of physical challenge as 'Just right'. And 77% agreed the mental/emotional challenge as 'Just right' too.